In this season of Advent we learn about waiting. Waiting is painful. It brings anxiety and sometimes causes us to wonder where God is or if he cares. The prophet Malachi spoke of the Messiah’s coming in an eponymous Old Testament book: I have loved you, saith the LORD…Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before …
In Paul Murray’s novel Skippy Dies, there’s a point where the main character, Howard, has an existential crisis. “It’s just not how I expected my life would be,” he says. “What did you expect?” a friend responds. After pondering, Howard replies, “I suppose—this sounds stupid, but I suppose I thought there’d be more of a story to my life.” If you strung …
Dan White Jr. is Movement Developer and Coach for The V3 Movement. His new book, Subterranean: Why the Future of the Church is Rootedness is now available. The following excerpt is part of a free chapter you can download here. God had been taking a jackhammer ever so gently to the foundation of my ecclesiology, which was rattling the bones of my …
In our last post we began looking at the formation of church planting teams from a perspective of the beloved Fellowship of the Ring. We explored the common mistakes church planting teams make, and we looked at the Early Church to see how she became established in the surroundings of her time. If you missed it, feel free to check it out, as it will help establish a …
In the movie the Fellowship of the Ring, at the Council of Elrond, a plan is hatched to cast the One Ring into the fires in Mordor which will destroy the Ring and end Sauron’s evil reign. As the question of what to do with the ring is brought before a team assembled by Gandalf the Great, fighting breaks out, and warrior wills …
Geoff Holsclaw is a co-pastor at Life on the Vine, a professor at Northern Seminary and is married to Cyd Holsclaw. Geoff Holsclaw and David Fitch have written a theologically accessible new book titled Prodigal Christianity. I deeply appreciate David and Geoff’s work. Both are giving a fresh voice to the Missional-Anabaptist expression . Together they forge some tough ground …
Before being part of a team that planted a church in the city, I served as a pastor for over a decade in fairly Hierarchical churches. In the last few years I’ve had to go through a serious overhaul in my understanding of ministry leadership. Today, instead of a place in a hierarchy, I participate in a “Leading Community” that is forging a network of …
Power is a tricky thing. I remember as a teenager discovering I had some speed and athleticism. I was no Superman, but I was a fast little goober that could throw the ball on target. That was enough in my small school to push me to the front. I made the football team and found I had power on the …
It’s been a few years for me since my first year of church planting. Back then, I was coming off 15 years of full-time paid pastoral ministry and was uncertain how to make the transition. To be honest, I was in some detox from swimming in a plethora of resources, programs, buildings, and titles. I had never learned what ministry …
I’m a total Sci-Fi fanatic. Most of the sci-fi post-apocalyptic movies or books that come out get me all jazzed up. I’m fascinated with the concept of how humanity survives when the existing structures previously depended upon on are no longer dependable. The Western World is changing. Many of the cultural structures that formed the church for centuries are disappearing. The images …